The Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, has blamed the inefficiency of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for Nigeria’s loss of cargoes and accruable revenue to ports of neighbouring countries. This is even as she disclosed that the maritime sector alone, if fully harnessed, could single-handedly finance Nigeria’s budget.
Speaking during the second phase of the 2020 Ministerial Retreat organised by the Federal Ministry of Transportation in Lagos, recently, Saraki lamented that the Customs inability to automate its operations had led to manual inspection of cargoes at the nation’s ports over the years, a development that had brought delays and other issues inimical to trade facilitation to the Nigerian port system.
Saraki also said that while ports of neighbouring countries in West Africa are using scanners, the Nigeria Customs Service is still doing physical cargo examination.
According to her, “Recently, the Customs declared over N1 trillion revenue collected within six months. The question I will like to ask is, at what cost did the Customs collect that much revenue?
“Customs has proven itself to be a hindrance to trade facilitation in Nigeria. We cannot compete because we are not efficient. While Benin Republic and Cote d’Ivoire are using scanners, we’re still opening containers and doing 100 per cent examination of cargoes. This has contributed to the loss of cargoes to these neighbouring ports.”
Also speaking at the sideline of the event, the Acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko expressed concerns over multiple Customs checkpoints that are causing delays at the nation’s ports.
He said the NPA had written to the Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali, to address the multiplication of checkpoints to achieve seamless cargo evacuation from the port.
“We have instances where you have multiple Customs checkpoints within the port itself. We have written to the CG of Customs and we are collaborating with him to bring an end to all of that because Customs is a partner agency in our operations at the port,” he said.
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